The ten best Boston Celtics of all-time

Saturday 2/28/26

1. Larry Bird

I know this makes for a controversial pick for the best Celtic in history, but I don't think it should. Obviously Bill Russell one scores of championships and is in large part responsible for an organizational ethos, but there were times when one watched Bird when you could have thought that he was the best a basketball player had ever been and that no one could play better. He had nights like that and nights where it may have been true. He also faced harder competition and a tougher league quality. Also, Bird had about the greatest line I've ever heard from an athlete when he said he was saving his right hand for the Lakers after playing that game left-handed against the Trail Blazers on Valentine's Day in 1986.

2. Bill Russell

If Russell isn't first, he has to be second. Russell won five MVPs, but he wasn't a first team All-NBA selection in three of those seasons. Russell was better at being the most valuable rather than the best. Which isn't a criticism. People who didn't watch him play underrate his athleticism. They think "defensive master," "winner," "leader." Russell had a complex relationship with Boston, but I always felt the city was important to him. It meant nothing to Bird, just as New England means nothing to Tom Brady. Funny how that works. Look at David Ortiz. I don't know where he lives, but he's a Bostonian. He'd say that I'm sure. Makes sense that Ortiz has a street named for him. Whenever I go to Charlestown to run stairs, I cross a bridge named for Bill Russell. And when I run stairs at City Hall, I do so next to a statue of him. Putting him second on this list isn't a slight or sacrilege. I just don't think there were nights where you'd look at Russell and say that was the best anyone had ever been at the sport. But, again, that's just my personal criteria.

3. John Havlicek

The runaway choice for consummate Celtic. And that went on for a long time. You can flip the order of one and two, but I think this top three has to be your top three. After that, well, there's more flexibility and room for argument.

4. Bob Cousy

Foundational. Base of the triangle. It's a different organization and culture without Cousy. Think of it like the Yankees without DiMaggio. You have all those great players, but minus this one the overall deal would be far from the same.

5. Dave Cowens

I'm sure having Cowens at number five is somewhat surprising. He won an MVP and was the most important player on two Celtics championship teams that were somewhat unlikely champions. The 1970s was a prime era for big men. Punishing, talented big men. It was a big man's game in many ways. Center was arguably the most important position. Cowens went up against Lanier, Jabbar, Walton. He absorbed a lot of physical punishment, exerted loads of energy, and was counted on to be huge at both ends of the court, which he was. Reminds me a bit of when the Bruins tasked Ray Bourque with being their best defensive and offensive player.

6. Kevin McHale

Best low post moves in basketball history? Up there. Excellent scorer, really good defender, tough, dirty when he needed to be, lot of finesse but could excel in rugged settings. I realize most people would have the two players who follow ahead of McHale.

7. Jayson Tatum

He's too passive for me to be higher. I think he has the skills, but he's not "the man" and he never will be. Even if he comes back and gets to where he was prior to his injury. The Celtics have had too many bad losses with him being the head dog in theory. Against the Warriors in the Finals, the Heat a few years back when they went down 3-0 in the series, against the Knicks last year. Yes, I know he got hurt in that series. But most of the series had already been played, and the Celtics were well on their way to be ousted before the Tatum injury. I find him underwhelming. And there are times I don't think he's the best player on his own team, and it's not like the guy who might be made this top ten. So, you know.

8. Paul Pierce

A better scorer than Tatum? Maybe, if we're talking two points you absolutely had to have. Didn't do a lot of winning, though, and required other guys coming in to carry the load with him equally (or more, arguably, in Kevin Garnett's case). Won the once, should have won again, but failed to do so. Was never one of the five or six best players in the league, let alone number one. Awesome at finding a way to the basket though without flash. Knew how to get through bodies and bounce off of them, roll past them. Slippery through contact.

9. Sam Jones

The most slept on Celtics legend. I daresay that 99% of current Celtics fans wouldn't recognize this name at all. Those who do would be older. Boomers, probably. Doesn't feature in tales of Celtics lore like Cousy. Which doesn't make it right.

10. Robert Parish

One of my favorite players and my favorite Celtic. Loved his game. Very good at just about everything. Knew his role, which sounds like a strange thing to say when you're talking one of the top fifty or sixty players in NBA history, but look who he had for teammates. At the same time, could step up and be the man if that was required on a given night.

Hard to leave out: Jaylen Brown, Tommy Heinsohn, Dennis Johnson, Jo Jo White, Kevin Garnett

I touched on Garnett. I'd guess you say he wasn't with the Celtics long enough, but he was with them for fair stretch. He's similar to Curt Schilling. I'm talking on the field/court now. The out-of-towner who comes to the Old City and immediately helps delivered a long-awaited and yearned for championship. Was never a rental either. Fabric guy.

Jaylen Brown has a conference finals MVP and a finals MVP. So like I said, tough to leave out. Then there's what he's doing this year.

Tommy Heinsohn is Mr. Celtic as much as anyone, including Bill Russell. It's sad that people often don't have any clue about this now, but he was a super player. Then there was everything else he did for the organization.

Jo Jo White is another obvious Hall of Famer but from more recent times who isn't cited often. Huge piece of the 1970s championship teams.

I never understood the Big Three thing with the 1980s Celtics because you had four future Hall of Famers in the starting line-up. So, these three Hall of Famers but not this fourth one in Dennis Johnson? What the hell was that? He may not have been at his very best when the Celtics got him, but damn he was good. He was still elite. Essential. I guess maybe he wasn't included because the others were front court players? Big as in physically bigger, too. But then when you had the second Big Three, Ray Allen was a guard. Anyway, my point is that first Big Three should have been the Big Four. DJ wasn't there for that first title with the other three in 1980-81, but McHale wasn't McHale at the time but rather a green (no pun intended) rookie.

Boston doesn't help itself out on the racial side of things sometimes even to this day. I walk past this store at Faneuil Hall, and right in the window they have this shirt they sell with a throwback look, talking about the real Boston or something like that, and it's just Larry Bird and Kevin McHale. The two white guys. One who about as big as any white guy in sports was in Boston until Tom Brady came along, and the white guy with the Irish last name. But obviously a shirt meant to appeal to a certain kind of person who prefers their stairs to be white. The nudge--or more like the hard elbow in the ribs--is, "These are the real Bostonians! The white guy stars!" which if anything becomes even more ridiculous with what we were just talking about regarding Bird in particular. Really distasteful, though. And anti-Celtic, I'd say. Ironically, McHale's appearance on Cheers probably solidifies him as a Bostonian in the minds of many people who saw that episode where they count the bolts in the Boston Garden floor.